Hedgehog Street People: Emma from London

23rd May 2022

Vet nurse Emma Onyejekwe is passionate about wildlife, and was inspired to help hedgehogs following their classification as ‘vulnerable to extinction’ back in 2020. As well as raising awareness of hedgehogs and how people can help them, Emma is now also planning surveys to find out more about her local population.

A passion for wildlife

Alongside Emma’s work as a vet nurse, she completed an advanced programme in Wildlife Nursing and spent time volunteering at her local wildlife hospital. Emma has used the vet practice where she works as an opportunity to raise awareness of local wildlife, and is planning a wildlife information board complete with Hedgehog Street leaflets.

Surveys

Emma has helped out with the Regent’s Park hedgehog survey in London as well as PTES’ Living with Mammals survey. These citizen science projects contribute vital hedgehog data on a local and national scale respectively. Emma then decided to contact the London HogWatch research team with an aim to set up surveys on her local common. Footprint tunnels will be used this summer to determine the presence and distribution of hedgehogs, with potential plans for thermal imaging and camera trapping surveys the following year, subject to license.

We wish Emma the best of luck with her surveys and hope to bring you some of her findings later this year!